What I learned from world-leading jewellery designers in Rome

This summer, my university sent me to Rome to study jewellery design to help me develop my skills in 3D art. UAL offers an ‘Arts Abroad’ scheme where students apply to be selected to be sent to a university of their choice to study the course of their choice for the summer. I spent the month learning from world-class lecturers in jewellery design, and I discovered my passion for fine art was not a redundant tool in this field – it was an advantage.

After I first experimented with 3D arts by making a bag inspired by my own rabbit illustrations for a university project, I decided I wanted to continue exploring disciplines outside of my comfort zone. What better way to do that than by learning the art of jewellery design in Rome for the summer? Because as we all know, the most iconic fashion trends are nothing without jewellery.

The first week mainly consisted of drawing. Every morning Barbara would take us to a different location in Rome and tell us to draw what we saw around us. This was often architecture. Each time she gave us a new demonstration of a different way we could use our materials to communicate the picture before us. By the end of the week I had truly hammered down my observational style in buildings and architecture, and it turned out fluency in this skill was the key to being able to draw jewellery too.

01. Creative observational drawing is a valued tool in every artistic field

As technology develops, tracing becomes more common and AI weaves its way into the art and design world, observational drawing is a crucial skill to have for any creative. But it’s a misunderstood skill; it doesn’t mean recreating a scene like a photograph. Think of Sickert and Topolski; their accuracy and their detail was accurate in emotion and atmosphere as well as in direct depiction.

Every art is a discipline, and although jewellery design and jewellery making are specific disciplines of their own, an essential skill for designers is the ability to accurately translate their idea from their head to a drawing, that communicates both the technical details and the atmosphere of the piece.

No matter the art, defining your own style of observational drawing is an essential first step.

02. Designs are structured through shapes – not sketches

A design is just that – a design. A technical communication used to make something into a practical reality. I was very excited about my observational expressive drawing in my first week of the course, but I also learned that it has its time and place. Barbara sat down with me one morning and, pointing to one of my pink drawings, said, ‘yes, this is you. This is Mabel and I love it, it’s beautiful. But today we need to learn to draw in a way that we can draw stones on jewellery in the future.’

My drawing is emotionally-driven, so when it came to translating my bunny drawing onto a ring, I traced over my bunny drawing several times in a row. Each time I used the fewest lines possible until I had transformed it into a single-line design. Now, it was made up of shapes that I could practically copy onto the ring.

03. The best lecturers are already respected in their industry

The best lecturers might be respected as teachers too – but what’s actually more important is that they are respected in the field they are teaching. There is a distinct difference between lecturers teaching for the sake of it and lecturers who have a passion in imparting their knowledge from the perspective of a successful career. The best part is when you research them and keep up with their work, you’ll get to see their advice pay off in action and see real-time proof of why you should be listening to them. All the lecturers I had in Rome were genuinely exciting professionals in the jewellery industry. The course leader, Barbara Brocchi, is known as the go-to international jewellery lecturer. Just after she finished teaching the jewellery course at IED, Rome, she flew to Seoul to teach jewellery to students there, and I heard talk of her going to do the same in Peru as well. Outside of education, she draws for Bulgari.

Paolo Mangano, the lecturer who taught me the art of goldsmithing for my rabbit hair pin, was recently selected for the Master of Arts and Crafts Cologni Foundation award in Milan, as part of the Homo Faber event in 2024, and regularly has his jewellery exhibited in jewellery galleries.

Enza de Pinto taught me the craft of wax jewellery making for my silver ring, and as well as making couture silver jewellery, she is also a trainer at ateliers all over the world and is highly respected in the jewellery industry.

I would not have come home having produced such exciting work without experts from the industry teaching me from the knowledge they’ve gained from their careers.

04. Passion is everything in all the arts

Barbara’s most unmistakable characteristic was the passion that she was so clearly full of. It was clear that her discipline is her entire reason for existence, and this clearly drives her success in her field. She is also an incredibly talented woman, but that only gets you so far. Passion and discipline is what makes you stand out, with discipline making her strive to constantly engage and improve her work; and with passion giving it the character and originality to stand out. No matter what art you engage with, the most successful work will be full of passion.

05. Engage with new environments

As mentioned in I Just Made My First Zine, Here’s What I Learned, the secret to any creative work is to engage, engage, engage, but x10! This is why seeking out new places to engage with is crucial when you’re trying to come up with inspiration for a new jewellery design.

You can’t create something new if you don’t experience something new. This is why you have to do everything you can to stimulate your creative brain - it’s the only way to make progress and see outside of your own ideas. You can make this a part of your natural creative process by building in walks to new areas into your daily or weekly routine. Just finding one street or one small alcove you’ve never noticed before, and taking a moment to stop, take some pictures and do some sketches will pay off.

06. But also observe new aspects of familiar environments

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep looking for new aspects of familiar environments too. Whether you’ve been in a big city for twenty years or a small town for three, there’s always something new to discover if you take the time to stop and look. It’s essential for your creativity to keep seeing old environments in different perspectives and to constantly see familiar things reframed. It can change your perspective on all sorts of things and keep your eye open-minded. That slab of silver you turn into jewellery shouldn’t be sold with made-up marketing. This engagement will give all your designs fresh, personal angles that only you could have come up with.